The Strange Way North
by Man With 1000 Faces
Summary: Krist finds himself in the wastes without knowing how he got there. He needs to get home and try to learn what happened. Rated T for later violence. Idea that I have had for a while but first time it has came out of my mind. Back to the grind finally.
1. The Forest Storm

When he awoke, he had no memory of what he had done to end up in this position. He was laying on his back looking up at the sky and he felt like his head was going to burst. Blinking, he tried moving his arms and legs.

_'No pain, that's good,' _He thought. _'At least not more than an ache. _He tried sitting up and found it extremely difficult to do. He realized that he was laying with his head oriented downhill. _'That explains it.'_ Rolling to his stomach (carefully) he pushed himself slowly to his knees and saw stars popping into his vision. He gently sat down and started to breathe deeply and evenly to try to control the headache that had started to manifest behind his eyes.

After a few minutes of calming breaths, he started looking around to try to figure out where he was. He couldn't remember a thing about how he had gotten there. He noticed that he was on a slope first of all. The trees were large and thick, gray as burnt paper and without leaves. There wasn't much in the way of undergrowth. He saw some bushes here and there but he had o idea where he was.

_'Well, might as well try to figure that out with a hike,'_ he stood to his feet stretching his stiff muscles. He checked his pockets, hoping, and was rewarded by finding a small metal box. "Yes," he breathed. At least he knew that this was most likely his doing that he was here. Bandits and thugs would have stolen everything from his body and left him to die.

Opening the box, he pulled out a small compass, orienting himself north, he turned straight to the west (uphillish) and started walking. He was going through his mind trying to remember doing a self diagnostic on his conscience. Learning that he could remember all the basic things about his life, he started looking a bit closer at his surroundings. It was cold, about 16 or 17 degrees Celsius. That meant that he was still in the northern areas of the wastes. There was a slight wind coming from the southeast and the slope was going uphill almost straight to the north. He noticed that there were some clouds forming above him which meant that he needed to find shelter soon, rain was never a good thing in the mountains.

After about 20 minutes of walking, he started to notice that the trees were thinning out and he started to see a break up ahead. Picking his way even more carefully, he came to a road that he recognized. He knew this road as a main route between Glowater and the Claw. Glancing with apprehension up at the clouds above that were starting to look angry, he started towards Glowater. The road was old, cracked and worn, with potholes dotting the winding surface. Climbing a slight slope, he knew he was about 20 more minutes from getting to Glowater.

Coming around a bend a little later, he saw a familiar shape, it was the large truck that had been flipped on its side and that marked the edge of the area where the guards of Glowater walked. A thunder-clap sent him running towards the truck, racing time. He had about 3 kilometers left to go to get to the town and he knew that it would be close to have him get caught in the rain. He thought about staying in the truck but his hunger won out and he passed it and kept on running.

He started to hear a thin drumming and quickly glanced behind him and saw the telltale streaks in the sky that announced the coming rain. He pushed himself faster and could feel his chest starting to protest. He came around a bend and saw the familiar shapes of the general store and the bar. The drumming was getting louder and another quick glance showed him that the rain was coming up behind him and would soon catch him.

He yelled, "Open the door!" and summoned his last strength to hit a full sprint, racing right for the door of the bar. The rain was catching up and he could start to feel the cool tingling that came when it came close to skin. The door creaked open a crack and then it was thrown open. A second later, he was through the door and it was slammed shut behind him.

"Are you out of your mind!? shrieked a small gritty woman as he hit the floor and tried to catch his breath. "You were 3 inches from death right there you know!" she continued, walking toward him and shaking her head. "Krist, you have really got to be careful out there."

"Relax Kate, I'm okay aren't I?" he asked, "besides, you are overreacting, I wouldn't die, at the worst I would just need to take a dose or two of Rad-X."

"Whatever, you know what I mean. Now, you made me drop a plate of food, go clean it up."

He got up to his feet and shot her a mock salute, "Yes ma'am."


	2. Picking Up

After a few hours, the rain started to subside. The sounds of the radioactive downpour diminishing to nothingness. Krist finished the chores that Old Ally had given him as fast as he could. He was anxious to try to figure out what had happened to him. He had searched his memory high and low for a clue of at least where he had been before but all he could remember was the forest.

He decided that the first person to ask was Old Ally herself, she seemed to know everything that happened in Glowater. He just needed to figure out how to ask her without sounding strange, if there was one thing that he hated, it was looking like a fool without wanting to. Walking up to her, he opened his mouth to start a conversation, but was interrupted.

"Where did you go last night Krist? I know you hate sleeping here for rent but that doesn't mean that the forests are any better."

"Ally, you know that sometimes I leave," Krist answered, leaving it hanging for her to say more.

"Yes, but you know that you never should leave at night for one of your little trips. People like to see you off. It's hard to do that if you sneak off in the middle of the night."

"Sorry about that Ally," he sighed, resigning himself to tell her his problem. "The thing is, I can't remember what happened. I remember waking up yesterday and doing my chores to help pay for my stay here, but that's about it. I woke up in the forest this morning and had to race the storm."

"Ah, well that explains why you were so jittery these last few hours," she laughed. "unfortunatly for you, I have no idea what you did yesterday after your chores. You left to go out on the town and I saw you again bowling into my door."

"Well then, guess that means I should go ask some people," sighing again, "I'm really not looking forward to this." And with that, he started for the door to the street. He rubbed his cheek, _'Eesh, I guess I haven't cleaned up since yesterday.' _So he turned around towards the stairs. Climbing to the second floor and going to the very last door, he pulled out his room key and opened the door.

Once in the comfort of his room, he stripped off his clothes, throwing them on his bed as he walked to the small bathroom. He took a quick shower, shaved, and went to go get dressed, as he was getting dressed, he looked into his large mirror (uncracked, a rarity that he paid a pretty penny for) to admire himself.

Tall, with large but lean muscles, and a deep, light tan; he was a fairly average gatherer. What made him stand out were the little details, scars criss-crossed his arms and chest, his thick, dark hair was kept short and neat, deep gray eyes seemed to both emenate light and darkness, while his lips were perpetually curled in a self-confident smirk.

He always loved his body, he saw it as the only thing that he had full control of in the world. He kept the best care of it that he could. He almost never did anything to put himself in danger if he could help it.

Pulling on a pair of jeans and a tee-shirt, he left his room and locked the door behind him, he went down the stairs and left to the street. He was instantly greeted by the sights and sounds of a small town. The town's 5 schoolchildren were running down the main street chasing a small dog were yelling and laughing. The few teenagers were digging drainage grooves in the roads to try to control the water in front of the stores and common areas. Adults walked around, some already putting up their road stalls to sell vegtables and other things.

One of the teenagers, a smaller girl named Lucy, saw Krist and soon the 6 of them were right up next to him. He knew they saw him as something of a hero, he was one of the only people that had autourity in the town that wasn't born with it. He was a person that showed up one day and decided that he was going to stay. His authourity wasn't based on anything more than respect and the town teenagers were the ones that gave him the most.

"Krist, Krist," a lanky boy named Mike was saying, "where did you go? Why did you go? Why did you come home so soon?"

"Calm down, calm down," Krist chuckled, an idea forming in his head. "I have a better idea, I know you all love to just get answers but what if you try to figure out on your own?"

Jackie, the oldest girl answered, "What do you mean? Like a guessing game?"

"No stupid," said Will, a larger boy, "he doesn't want to play a game." Turning his attention to Krist, "Do you?"

"Not exactly," Krist said, "what I was thinking is a sort of contest, if you can figure this out without me telling you, I will owe each of you a favor. All you have to do is talk to people around the town."

"Alright!" And they were off.

_'Nice, they will take care of the heavy lifting. But it won't hurt to try to find out a bit of info on my own,'_ he thought, walking towards the bar.


	3. Jenna and Steven

Krist entered the bar and looked around at the familiar scene. John in the corner never seemed to leave and the usual mix of townsfolk. Walking right up to the counter he struck up a conversation with the barkeep, Jenna.

"Hiya K," she said in her normal singsong voice, "can I get ya your usual?"

"Sure thing Sweetheart," Krist smirked back at her, mocking her voice. They were good friends who knew each other better than most. That led to the joking that was common between them. When Jenna smiled and turned to go grab Krist his scotch, Krist couldn't help but watch her go. There had been a little something between them a while ago but they had decided that since she was more or less tied to Glowater and he was only "passing through" that they should just be friends. that didn't mean that they didn't still flirt once in a while. She was worth thinking of as well. Shorter with just enough curves to be a head-turner, with short brown hair and browner eyes, she was the object of affection for several guys.

As she walked back with his drink she caught him staring and chuckled, "don't you have better things to do than watch me?"

Krist laughed back, "Not really, unless you want to see how drunk we can get."

She laughed but shook her head and went back to washing the glasses and tumblers that were sitting by the nearby sink. After a few minutes of Jenna washing and Krist sipping his scotch looking around the room, Jenna brought him another round.

"Somethings on your mind isn't there?" she asked him while holding his drink out to him.

"Ya, you," Krist tried to wave the comment away.

"Kristan," she said in a low voice, "I know you well enough to know that you have a problem. You need some help?"

She almost never called him by his full first name, hardly anybody even knew it. He knew she knew and he let out a deep sigh.

"Well seeing as how I'm the closest thing this place has to a celebrity, you probably know what it is that's on my mind," Krist said leaning forward towards her.

"I guess it might have to do with your mad dash into town yesterday after you disappeared," she said slowly, feigning thinking. "Ooh, I know. something to do with you sending my brother and his friends off on some errand just a few minutes ago."

"Well you're right on the money aren't ya," Krist said, an idea popping into his head. "You don't happen to know anything about my 'disappearance,' do ya? Maybe someone who does know?"

She leaned closer and grinned mischievously, "What's it worth to ya?" And at that he knew that she knew something. He grabbed her wrist and looked into her eyes.

"Please," he said softly, "I need to know."

"I don't know everything but I think that I can help you."

"Anything helps."

"Come to my house after my shift. We can talk there."

* * *

As he stepped out into the street, he decided that there was one more person he could ask. He wasn't sure where he was but Krist knew he could trust him.

As if on cue, Krist heard his name being shouted from the direction of the general store. Turning to look, he saw a short, thin man jogging towards him.

"Hey Steven!" Krist called back to the man, turning to face him. Steven was small, full head shorter than Krist and about 100 pounds with all his clothing. He had a shock of dirty blond hair and bright eyes.

"Crisp!" Steven came to a stop by landing a heavy hand on Krist's shoulder.

"How ya doing Stinkin'?" Krist's first friend in Glowater was Steven and they had met when they were both drunk and couldn't speak straight, this led to thier nicknames that they had for eachother.

"Hey Crisp, I gotta talk to ya," Steven said in a lower voice, "let's go to my place."

"Hold on minute, lets just go find an out-of-the-way spot and talk, I'm waiting for someone."

"Jenna or the pack of teenagers you sent out?" Steven asked? Krist stopped, taken aback. He always wondered how Steven always seemed to know his every move. "The kids told me everything they found out, it was pretty easy to convince them."

"Steven, I have a better idea, let's wait for Jenna and the three of us can talk at her place."

"Okay then," Steven sighed, "how long do we have to wait?"

"Not long, let's go get something to eat and by the time we finish she'll be ready."

"Awesome, I'll buy the grub."

Krist let her go. "Ok. I'll be there," he drained his scotch, smiled at her, and turned to leave a grin on his face too.


End file.
